


River Guard

by Amethyst_Moon



Series: it's a long way to walk [8]
Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2
Genre: Gen, How Do I Tag, Kagome bored with modern life, Post-InuYasha, Pre-Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-07
Updated: 2016-10-07
Packaged: 2018-08-20 01:11:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8231045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amethyst_Moon/pseuds/Amethyst_Moon
Summary: The god-tree was the site of so many of her adventures. She met Inuyasha and discovered the Jewel there. And now, she supposed, this silver-haired teen would be the start of something new as well.Yamato had only wanted to investigate the unusually high levels of spiritual energy at Higurashi Shrine. He had not expected the priestess there to become so important in the following days.





	

The alarms were blaring. Constantly.

 

“Sir! Spiritual energy has spiked in western Tokyo!”

 

He could have sighed in annoyance. What a nuisance at such a sensitive time. “Send Team E to deal with it.”

 

“But, sir... you should really look at this,” saying so, the JP’s member brought a map up onto the main screen. It was simple, almost like a thermal, where certain areas of the city were lit up brightly with yellows and reds while others were a cool blue. One part in particular was bright crimson, pulsing. “The energy expended almost rivals the Dragon Stream!”

 

Yamato tch’ed; probably more trash. But he couldn’t be too sure, not when the threat of Septentriones was always looming. Not when his ideal was so close. “Location?”

 

“Higurashi Shrine, sir!”

 

* * *

 

She was calmly sweeping the courtyard when a commotion ensued near the gate. Some ‘suspicious-looking people’ had apparently approached, so her grandfather had taken it upon himself to evict them from the premises. Smiling tiredly, she moved over to Goshinboku - it had, in a way, been her only constant companion throughout her life, from infanthood to the teen she was now. Her mother could not accompany her to the past. Nor her brother, or grandfather. Not Sango, Miroku, Kirara or Shippo, no matter how much he wanted to. Inuyasha could and did travel freely, she supposed, but even he did not arrive into her life until a year before now. Only the Sacred Tree. It was standing five hundred years ago, and she had no doubt it would still be standing five hundred years later.

 

And now--

 

There was the sound of slapping paper on the steps.

 

She tried to stifle her laughter, truly she did. But it was not to be when it became apparent that her (slightly senile) grandfather had another victim to his tendency to declare others as demons. Starting out as a giggle, then a full-blown laughing spree, she couldn’t help but reflect that she was probably the only one - in Japan, at least - who could detect demons from miles away, likely in generations. Yet now it seemed like there were no demons left. The world was suffocating her. It was nice to be among her own kind, but in a crowded city like Tokyo, the sheer density of humans was making her sick. She had grown so used to the open spaces of the Feudal era, the wide variety of species there. Now... now it won’t be that way anymore. The Jewel had taken care of that.

 

After she had her giggles under control, she approached the poor visitors who were no doubt bored brainless of her grandfather’s rants. He really was going senile in his old age, telling stories of the Priestess Who Defied Time and the founding of their shrine to anyone within earshot. It didn’t take a genius for her family to realise the former was referring to her. Kagome Higurashi, the supposed ‘sick kid’ of Aoyama High School.

 

Kagome was stopped, as if struck. In a manner of speaking, she had been. The beings coming up the steps were human, that’s for sure, but had much higher spiritual potential than usual. Not to mention the one who seemed like the leader - or the one standing slightly in front - was  _ shining. _ Not literally. But his aura was brilliant, sort of like Sesshomaru’s in a twisted way, and made her want to curl up against him and go to sleep. Altogether, it felt like - only a word borrowed from the demon friends she had could describe it - he was  _ pack _ . He had the potential to be closer than any friends or blood relatives could ever hope to be. It didn’t make sense, they hadn’t even spoken to each other, but she knew. And maybe it was her own loneliness, too - Kagome had wanted to have that feeling of belonging back, the one she always had with their group. As if nothing could separate them.

 

“And you are?” The silver-haired man asked condescendingly, glaring down the bridge of his nose. Another trait like him. Sesshomaru would be so pissed if he ever found she was comparing him to a human.

 

Future pack or not, she had to protect the family she had now. “The head priestess of this shrine. What business do you have here?”

 

Yamato, for his part, had just the smallest trickle of respect for this civilian who dared face his wrath. It wasn’t like he could just out and demand for the source of the energy to be found, and if possible, taken into custody. She would either think he was crazy or kick him off the grounds. Neither were desirable results in this situation. “My... colleague... and I are interested in the local legends surrounding the area. May we explore the grounds?"

 

“Don't let them in, Kagome! They'll taint the grounds with their youki!”

 

He had to raise a brow at the old man's words. Youki. So this shrine, or this man rather, believed in the existence of demons.

 

“Grandpa!” Kagome blushed. How embarrassing! “How many times have I told you, there aren't demons here!” She subtly glared at him to remind him of this time’s ignorance. Not everyone had to know about her adventures. The young priestess gestured them in. “Please, enter. I apologise for him, he believes the demons of the myths are real.” She forced a chuckle. There had been a time when she thought it was the wild ramblings of an old man as well.

 

“And you?” He asked. The man didn’t seem capable of storing that much power within him; his physical body just wasn’t up to it.

 

She pursed her lips for a moment as she thought. It wouldn’t do to arouse any suspicions. “I believe that it may have been real, though it is unlikely to be the case now.”

 

“Oh?”

 

“Security is too tight. Without the help of spells, the demons in the legends who had extra appendages, looked strange to human eyes, didn’t grow taller than a child, grew taller than trees, or couldn’t obtain a human form would never be able to live in peace. I don’t think it would be a good existence to be constantly fearing  _ someone found out _ and  _ I’ve got to leave this place _ .”

 

She raised a good point. All demons who crossed the barrier were destroyed by JP’s before they could wreak terrible damage, many were under the control of members themselves, and the ones too powerful to defeat were sealed away. It was unlikely any were living among humans. “Are there local legends involving demons?”

 

Kagome noticed the sudden change, though thought nothing of it. The tale most often told on this shrine was bittersweet. “Many - the shrine itself is said to have been founded by a half-demon and his human friends as a tribute to their fallen comrade. Would you like to hear it? I warn you it has three parts and is quite long.” When he nodded, she led the two over to a bench and gestured for them to sit. She settled in among the roots of Goshinboku. "This tale is of a trio of priestesses. The first lived centuries ago, and had engaged in a fight to the death with a demon. She fought seven days and seven nights, but neither could win. In a final bid to win against the face of her exhaustion, she captured her soul and his, condensing them into a bauble - the Jewel of Four Souls. It is rumored to have been capable of granting a single wish to the one who holds its completed form.

 

“The priestess, Midoriko, had allies in the form of demon slayers, though she asked them not to interfere with her fight. After her death, they collected the Jewel and sent it to another priestess in the town of Edo - later renamed Tokyo, generations later - so that it could retain its purity.

 

"After some time, the second priestess, Kikyo, had fallen in love with a half-demon. They, as the result of a union between a demon and a human, were frowned upon by both species. For us humans they were part of their tormentors, the demons, and to the demons they were too weak to be considered a contribution to their society," Kagome shook her head sadly. "They often led very hard lives."

 

Her audience nodded.

 

Continuing, she said, “But another half-demon became obsessed with Kikyo. The demon, remembered as the Spider, turned the second priestess against her lover and he against her. Believing her lover to want nothing but the Jewel, the second priestess sealed her half-demon to the Goshinboku, the god-tree of our shrine, before dying of her wounds. Her sister then burned her body along with the Jewel.

 

“Fifty years later, the third priestess emerged, said to be the reincarnation of the second. She had carried the Jewel within her all her life, unknowingly, until a demon ripped it out of her. In that same incident, she woke the half-demon from his seal, who saved her from the attack. Soon after, she shattered the Jewel and embarked on a quest to reclaim all its pieces before they fell into the hands of the evil Spider. They enlisted the aid of those they met, and those who joined their travelling group became as close as family. But within the year, their quest was done and the third priestess had died in the final push against the Spider. In her memory, her comrades founded this shrine.”


End file.
